October 28, 2011

Be the Child in You


"We grow up and we are never the same again!"

While growing up, we seldom realize the gradual change in ourselves. In the quest of materialistic success we tend to forget the undergoing psychological changes in ourselves. All we care about is the future, and in order to have a bright future we keep working blindly, totally unaware and careless of the subconscious changes taking place in us. So we keep getting away from the child in us. We keep getting covered with an artificial aura. We lose our natural instincts, we lose our innocence, we loose our inquisitiveness, we loose our truthfulness; we in fact become a new person- a different person altogether. But the irony is that we love those childhood days and in fact sometimes we wish we were still child!! Why don't then we simply be the child in us? Why do we let ourselves change so drastically?

Once I had gone to meet 'Mitthi'- my Jijaji's niece. I was meeting her after 3-4 yrs. Last she was just 4 yrs, and now she had turned 8, studying in 4th Std. She recognized me easily but was really shying off. Thankfully, I had brought lots of chocolates to bribe her. I was feeding her chocolates and chatting with her. I was coaxing her to come with me to my home. I said- "तुम मेरे साथ मेरे घर चलोगी? 2-3 दिन रहना, चाची (my didi) से भी मिल लेना, और फिर हम तुमको वापस पहुंचा देंगे." She said- "नहीं, हम मम्मी के बिना नहीं जायेंगे, मम्मी जाएगी तभी जायेंगे." I said- "Plzz चलो ना." She again replied in negative. I said- "नहीं चलोगी? :( :( Plzz चलो ना :( " She said- "आप तो एकदम बच्चों जैसे कर रहे हैं" !! I was left amused at her straight, innocent reply. But later, I was also left pondering over the changes in her. She thinks acting your natural self is childish!! Back then when she was 4 yr old, she definitely wouldn't have said the same thing. But now she has grown up a bit, now she thinks that grown up people needs to act serious, not behave sentimental in front of others.

The surrounding environment changes children a lot. We start undergoing change from the very childhood. First our parents teach us the right and wrong, how to behave,how to react and all; and later, when we have grown up a bit, we ourselves start observing and learning from our surrounding. Friends, teachers, books, magazines, TV; these start changing our behaviour. Unfortunately, almost none of these teaches us to preserve some of the most needed childlike traits. We learn, we evolve, we grow up and we are never the same again!!

Many will say that we can't carry our childlike traits for long. We have to keep evolving, keep changing with growing age so this entire talk of being the child stands nowhere. Well, true to some extent. Of course we can't remain the same always. We need to change, keep adapting, but to what extent?? Sadly, being surrounded by shrewd minded people all around us, most of us, in order to cope up, change so much that we totally lose the child in us. We become a completely changed person. We start taking things too seriously, we stop having fun, we start hiding our natural emotions, we start taking a pragmatic approach (to things) rather than acting on our natural instincts.

Children are one of the most marvelous creation of God. They say "God resides in small children." Look at a child's behaviour intently, it is so fascinating. The innocence, the truthfulness, the frankness, the inquisitiveness, the easy-to-mix-up friendly nature.... everything looks so lovely, so enchanting (and that's the one reason we love children). But unfortunately, we tend to lose all those qualities one by one. As we grow up, we start departing from our natural self and keep drifting towards an artificial being.

But why is it so hard to be the child?!! I don't think it's really so difficult that we change ourselves so much. Try for it, throw your artificial aura, embrace some of those childlike traits back, you will love it. You won't lose anything by being your natural self. You will, in fact enjoy the new experience. So go ahead, 'Be the Child in you'!! :)


October 14, 2011

Revolution 2020- A short review

Well, it's a story of two friends falling for the same girl. One guy is passionate about bringing about revolution through his writing, and the other guy-the hero,being out of choice gets caught up in setting up a College business. He albeit himself clean, but the money for the college is funded by an MLA who is corrupt. The girl keeps changing sides until finally deliberately given away by by the hero to his fellow competitor friend. Apparently he gets a change of heart, feels guilty and thinks he doesn't deserve the girl.

Anyway the story is a nice one but since it has sad ending, so it disappoints a bit in the end (In the end the hero deliberately sacrifices his love for another supporting role hero, which most reader would dislike). Otherwise, apart from that, it's very nice. It has been given modern touch by including online chat conversations and a few more similar things. And as always, Chetan Bhagat has put a few very good one-liners, some witty and some thoughtful ones. All in all, a detailed love triangle having all the needed masaala(a few steamy scenes too), and also enlightening how girls can switch between guys so easily and so frequently. If the last 30 pages had been of my choice-i.e. the hero getting the much deserved gal, then I would have given it a 8/10 rating. But this way, I would give it 6/10. But still, it was far better than his "3mistakesOfMyLife" and "1Night@callCentre". I am sure he could have easily written a bit better,just brought sm different twist in story in the end making the ending a happy one. I don't know why he preferred a sad ending :/

*****     *****     *****     *****     *****     *****     *****     *****

Now here goes a composition of all the witty, hilarious, interesting and thoughtful one-liners from the novel, that I liked big way-

☞ Love makes us do stupid things.

☞ Love, officially, is nothing but a bitch. (Page 73)

☞ (#Bansal) Students and teachers strode about in a purposeful manner as if they were going to launch satellites in space. (Page 59)

☞ Why does girls give confusing signals? (Page 44)

☞ Happens. We are losers. We don't get things easily. Marks,ranks,girls- nothing is easy for us. (Page 79)

☞ Sometimes the only way to get rid of an unpleasant feeling is to replace it with another unpleasant feeling. (Page 80)

☞ Of course you could be one of those naturally talented students who never have to study much. But most of us are not,courtesy our parents' mediocre genes. Ironically, these same same parents who donated these dumb genes take the longest time to understand that their child is not Einstein's clone. (Page 82)

☞ I wanted to tell her she hadn't spoken to me for three months. However girl gets extremely upset if you give them evidence contrary to their belief. (Page 85)

☞ She gave me an understanding nod. But she could never understand that losers, even if they do not have a brain, have a heart. (Page 102)

☞ When you screw up someone's life, the least you can do is leave the person alone. (Page 105)

☞ It's amazing to be in love (but) only when the other person loves you back. (Page 151)

☞ Life is a bitch when the only women you can think of belongs to someone else. (Page 159)

☞ I didn't know what to say to that. Girls can come up with the simplest of message that have the most complex meanings. (Page 208)

☞ Girls are contradictory. They will say they like communication, but on certain topics they clam up. If they like you, they would prefer you sense it rather than make them say it. (Page 228)

☞ Girls don't like to discuss intimate moments,especially if you probe them. However, they also get upset if you don't refer to the moments at all.
(Page 251)

Hope you liked the post :)

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